Adomnán, the Life of Columba, and the Easter Controversy.

What is it about?

Adomnán's Vita Columbae, in its opening chapters, addresses what was an urgent question for the monks of Iona and its daughter-houses: how to deal with Easter dispute, the results of which had left Iona in a weak position since AD 664 (the Synod of Whitby). Adomán uses two stories about two saints and their relationship to Columba to urge his solution to this crisis - albeit in a subtly disguised way through narrative: Columba had foreseen this crisis, and had implicityly urged that Iona should adopt the 19-year Easter cycle.

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